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Poll: Almost half of Americans say feds infringe on civil liberties

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defense contractor, is seen in this still image taken from video during an interview by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong June 6, 2013. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON — In just three years, Americans have dramatically shifted their views on how they feel about the Obama administration's efforts to prevent another terrorist attack, and now almost half say the government is intruding on civil liberties for the sake of national security, a new poll shows.

The poll found that 45 percent of voters think the government's anti-terrorism efforts go too far and infringe on civil liberties — a large shift from a January 2010 survey by the same pollster that found 63 percent then thought the government "didn't go far enough" to adequately protect the country.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

"It's an issue that's changing. We're obviously in the middle of it. Polls are a snapshot in time," said Peter Brown, a director at Quinnipiac University Polling Institute at a briefing Wednesday in Washington. "This is what public thought is at this point given the developments. We found now there is concern about civil liberties and more sympathy for Snowden than we've seen in the political establishment."

Pollsters asked 2,014 registered voters nationwide, including some in Colorado, whether the federal government has "gone too far" in domestic surveillance efforts and whether leaker and former government contractor Edward Snowden was a "whistle-blower" or a "traitor."

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Snowden leaked confidential information to media outlets about the administration's domestic spying efforts and is now marooned in an airport in Russia. He is wanted in the U.S. for espionage, among other charges.

Among those polled, 55 percent say Snowden is a whistle-blower and not a traitor.

Quinnipiac University conducted the poll in live telephone interviews with Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters between June 28 and July 8. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Most Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House intelligence committees have been defensive about how the Obama administration has handled domestic surveillance. National security officials have acknowledged that they have collected large banks of e-mail and phone call metadata from millions of Americans.

One outspoken critic is Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, who has pushed the Obama administration to be more transparent on its domestic spying programs. Udall, along with Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden, has also called the government's interpretation of certain sections of the Patriot Act too intrusive and not necessary to protect the United States from a terrorist attack.

"Sen. Udall has repeatedly said that Americans would be shocked if they found out how the federal government was secretly interpreting the Patriot Act to infringe on law-abiding Americans' constitutional privacy rights," said spokesman Mike Saccone. "This poll shows that most Americans agree."

In the poll, there was remarkably little difference between Democrats and Republicans on the issue. Among independent voters, 49 percent say that counter-terrorism issues have gone too far.

"In a country that is split sharply on virtually every political issue along Democratic and Republican lines, there is virtually no difference on this question by political party," Brown said. "And that's really unusual these days."

Brown said he doesn't think Americans' shifting beliefs on civil liberties and their sympathies for Snowden will play any major role in the 2014 midterm elections. Udall is up for re-election next year.

"We're a long way from most elections. The congressional elections are a year and a half away," he said. "By then, by 2014, we'll assume Snowden will be almost forgotten as a public issue."

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